Reading Engagement, Reading Anxiety, and Self-Perceived Reading Success among Malaysian ESL Foundation Students: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

This descriptive quantitative study examined the levels of reading anxiety, reading engagement, and self-perceived reading performance among Malaysian ESL foundation students across three academic programmes: Science, Engineering, and Law. Underpinned by Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis and Guthrie and Wigfield’s Engaged Reading Model (2000), the study aimed to describe learners’ emotional and motivational experiences in academic reading contexts. A total of 155 students participated, responding to a structured questionnaire adapted from established instruments: the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (Saito, Garza, & Horwitz, 1999), the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000), and selected items from the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). Descriptive analysis revealed that the overall level of reading anxiety was moderate (M = 2.95, SD = 0.99). Among the three groups, Law students reported the highest anxiety (M = 3.15, SD = 1.10), followed by Science (M = 3.01, SD = 0.89) and Engineering (M = 2.67, SD = 0.94). Reading engagement was generally high (M = 3.82, SD = 0.77), while self-perceived reading performance was moderate (M = 3.46, SD = 0.83). The findings indicate that although students are engaged readers, moderate anxiety may still influence their perceived performance. The study highlights the need for supportive instructional practices and structured strategies such as TEEEL to enhance engagement and reduce anxiety in ESL reading classrooms.